Blurred Realities
by cassious
Summary: Sometimes good intentions end with not-so-good results. It takes place it both a real and cyber world but both are equally important and a corrupt government rules both. A cyberpunk story I just had pop into my head. It's my first CP story so please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I did use some elements of technology from Star Trek and will be using some more. However, I don't claim to own Star Trek or anything, I'm just borrowing some stuff.

Bit more of a summary: This isn't set on Earth; it's on another planet called Omithron where they're slowing becoming more 'technologized'. As in, reality is starting to take place more in cyberspace, less in the real world. There's a cyber-economy and such. They all have a life in the cyber world (which is called Cytrona) and a completely different one in reality. The only thing that's the same in both 'realities' is the government. Cytrona is just as hard to survive in and if your Cytrona self dies, you don't get a respawn or anything. It's pretty much taboo to meet up with someone you know only from Cytrona, but you can meet people you know Omithron in Cytrona. Cytrona can be accessed while you're sleeping or awake, so you could be in the real world while awake, then while sleeping, in Cytrona. The main character's name is pronounced 'Aa-lie-as'.

**Chapter 1**

"Come on you piece of….UGH!" A loud metal clang came from under the hovercraft followed by the hiss of liquid spraying out of a tight space and shouts of profanity.

A pale, lanky, young man came and crouched beside the craft. "Need anything Ali?" He asked, getting down on his knees to peer under it.

"Yeah, a towel and a hot bath…Maybe some soap too." The voice from under the craft snapped sarcastically.

Chuckling, the young man grabbed a couple tools and slid under the craft next to the woman already there. "I can't exactly get you that, but I can help you fix this leak and maybe after, share some of my lunch with you."

Minutes later, the slim man came back out from under the craft, stood up and brushed himself off. He then reached down and helped a wiry, agile and youthful-looking woman up. While she dusted off her rust colored pants and tight cream tank he ruffled her short red hair.

"You know, I think you break more things than you fix around here kid." He shoved the tools back in the orange box sitting on the floor and slammed it shut.

"Who you calling kid Navryn, I turned 22 last week!" She protested, shaking her thick, synthetic gloves out, spattering the floor with coolant liquid. "This stuff never comes off." She grumbled, looking down at her spattered clothes.

"Should've decided to fix computers instead, way less messy." The man called Navryn told her. He had finished cleaning up and headed to a door off to the right of the hanger they were in. She followed him after stowing her gloves in her back pocket.

They went into the next room, a sort of rec-hall with tables and benches made of a cheap blue, plastic-like material. There were rectangular, thin, gray boxes along the table, beside them, a thin cord for each box stuck out of a small hole. The two took seats next to each other after Navryn retrieved a dull colored metal box from a locker. He opened it and divided what was in it equally for two.

When they each had some of the blue and gray flakes from the box they both took the cords beside their gray boxes and hooked them into the small, metallic colored holes under their right ears. Once done, holographic screens rose out of their gray boxes and flickered to life. The screens each said 'accessing' in a flashing yellow font. While waiting, Navryn turned to the woman.

"So?" He asked, leaning his elbow on the table and resting his head on his hand.

"So what?" She munched on a couple flakes. "What is this stuff anyways?"

"Don't change the topic Alias. You know what I'm meaning, you said you had something to tell me. And it's Ybin toenails. They're both healthy and cheap!" He winked.

She looked surprised and glared at the 'toenails'. With a sigh, she ate a couple more. "Just shows how desperate we've become, we can't even afford to eat feet, just the toenails."

"Get on with it already!" A hint of exasperation showed through Navryn's voice.

Alias looked around, except for a couple people across the room, no one else was there. "Alright," She lowered her voice some, "I found out a few days ago the Mech Squad found out about the hacking group called 'Inston Reform' and captured nearly all their members."

"So? That happens all the time. Besides, they were asking for it, Inston was massive and they had hacked a lot of high security stuff. They were selling confidential government documents to other hacking groups for real world cash." Navryn suddenly looked suspicious. "Who's your source anyways? Are they trustworthy? You know the Mechs don't announce this stuff till almost two weeks after and as much as they creep us out, they're really the only reliable source on hacker arrests."

"Heard it from Elrin, who knew someone in the group," Alias told him. "Why do Mechs creep you out? They look just like us!"

Navryn shivered a little bit. "Their eyes are freaky. It's like…They're…Empty inside, like they have no souls or anything."

"Well duh, they're androids, no machine has a soul!" She laughed, her hazel eyes twinkling. Her screen had finally loaded and on it now was a humanoid looking character, moving around and taking care of its needs. She then lowered her voice again. "Anyways, there's more. Elrin looked up his friend's record to see what labor camp they sent her to and…well…"

Navryn's expression was questioning. "Go on." He pressed her.

"There was no file at all."

"False identity?" Navryn asked.

"That's just it; he then looked up the others he knew were involved with Inston and there were no files on any of them."

Navryn looked shocked. "None at all? But…That can't happen, not that many files, they can't all have false identities, the Mechs would've found them in an instant!"

Just as Alias was about to reply, a com-droid hovered in. In a grating, mechanical voice it ordered "All workers return to stations, break has ceased." It returned the way it came.

Alias looked at her screen. The character stopped moving and then the screen showed a red font that read "It is now safe to remove access link from data port. Thanks you for visiting Cytrona." She carefully pulled the cord from the hole under her ear and when it was removed the holo-screen flickered and returned to the gray box.

"I don't know Nav, something doesn't seem right with that whole thing. They captured nearly 120 people, not all of them could have false identities." She said as they made their way back to the hanger.

"No it doesn't seem right. But we'll talk about this after. Work's done in a few hours. After, want to come over for a drink and we can talk more? Or do something else if you'd like…" He chuckled and gave her a very suggestive wink.

"Oh shut it!" She whacked him with her glove before she put it on. "And I would, but I've got a lot of work to do in Cytrona tonight."

He shook his head. "This whole two-lives thing is too much. When I was little, it was only a game. Now it's another life and people take it seriously…" He had his gloves on and was handing tools to Alias. They both crawled under a turbo-craft that had just come in and began working.

"Yeah well, that's how it is now. Get used to it." She told him sternly.

"Now, don't hit the coolant tank with the coil spanner this time or we'll…" As he was saying this, a hiss began and he was hit in the chest with liquid.

"Your fault this time!" She laughed.


	2. Chapter 2

Once again, I don't own Star Trek (If I did, that would mean I'd own Data and Odo, which would be pretty epic). Please R&R, it would be greatly appreciated.

**Chapter 2**

Alias was sitting on a torn up seat of what was left of the land-tram. Most of it, along with quite a bit of Omithron, was destroyed when the government decided to test the Mech prototypes on the unsuspecting population almost a decade ago. Of course, there was some malfunction with the prototypes the government's scientists hadn't bothered to notice before releasing the androids, causing them to create a path of destruction across the world, which would be quite easy for something with double the strength of an average, healthy, person and the brain power to practically create a weapon out of anything.

Since then, the land-tram had become almost obsolete with the cyber-revolution, which began when Cytrona was created around the same time as the Mech prototypes were released, but it still ran to a few lower class neighborhoods, the ones that were suspected of having a Mech-Proto or two lurking around. They sky-train's backers didn't want to risk sending their precious investment where it might end up getting destroyed by a raging machine.

As the tram rattled along, making loud grating noises on the rougher parts of the track, Alias watched the slums of her world go by out the opposite window. The buildings were ugly shades grays, browns and tans that were slowly falling apart. Nothing like the sleek, seamless black of upper class buildings, with their shining lights as far as the eye could see, glowing holo-screens as long as a tram car. Here, lights were common enough, but they always flickered, public holo-screens were rare, but you could easily rig a small one up yourself and get basic channels, making sure you didn't get caught for stealing the airwaves was more difficult.

Alias was shaken out of her thoughts as the tram screeched to a jolting stop. A warbled female voice announced "Royal Heights, Next stop; Felus Lakes".

"_Royal Heights my ass,"_ She thought as she went to what was supposed to be an automatic door, when it didn't open; she kicked it with her heavy boot. It opened a couple inches, enough for her to pull it open. She hopped out, and was about to swing her bag onto her back when she saw the message alert blinking. She found a dirty bench to sit on, pulled open the flap and pushed a button that was inside. It brought up a very small holo-screen, with a text instead of video message. She began to read;

"_We've got work tonight. Security scans will be down for approx. 5 minutes at 21:30. More than enough time to get into Central Hall of Xerolite Mining Co. I hear they've got some documents on where the 117 members of Inston went. Why a mining co. would have that I don't know, but I'd like to. Be logged on by 21:00 so we have time to prep._

_Lots of love my little spies,_

_M._

_P.S: Anyone seen or heard from Elrin lately? I need my best code breaker for tonight! Try to make sure he gets this!_

Chuckling, Alias deleted the message from her inbox, using a simple, yet effective, string of button pressing to make sure no one could trace it to her. She got up and left the tram platform, heading down the stairs onto the smog filled street below. Overhead, a couple old hover-bikes flew by and even higher, a vector-ship could be heard breaking out of the atmosphere.

Alias started to walk home, keeping her hand in one of her large pockets on a plasma pistol, which she carried everywhere. It would do too much to a Mech-Proto if one came after her, but in a neighborhood like this, it was certainly effective against petty thieves and rape gangs.

Her small apartment wasn't too far from the tram station. She was on the third floor of one of the slightly better buildings here. Better mainly because you had to pay rent and maybe because you got a little better connection to Cytrona.

In the doorway of the building, a young girl sat, knees pulled to her chest, her head resting on them. As she went through the door Alias thought to herself "_That was me only a few years ago…"_ This was true, if it hadn't been for M. hooking her up through some of his other employees in Cytrona and Omithron, she never would have gotten the job fixing machines. It wasn't pleasant work, with long hours and low pay, but it gave her a bit of food, among other things.

She went up the three flights of stairs, passing a couple who seemed to be too impatient to get to their apartment first before indulging themselves with each other, and scanned her key card over the identifier. She heard the click, opened the door and went in.

Inside, she was greeted by something that resembled what Earth people called a 'cat'. It had a somewhat clear coat, but the tip of each hair changed color depending on it's feelings. It was a golden orange right now, which Alias took for happiness. She bent down and scratched the animal's head. Wherever she put her hand, the color would flicker to others quickly then return to whatever the animal had chosen.

"Hello little Vern." Whatever the animal was, it clicked quickly and repeatedly in return.

Alias tossed her heavy, dark green coat over the back of a chair, but took the pistol out first and tucked it in her belt. In what would be considered a kitchen, although it was overrun by a forest of robotic arms stemming from the center of the ceiling. On the wall just outside it was a keypad. Alias went over to it and began punching a combination of buttons. "Hungry Vern?" she asked the cat-like critter. It made the strange clicking noise twice and began sniffing her jacket as the kitchen arms worked furiously, picking up utensils and mixing ingredients together. As it worked, Alias went over to her bed and dug a long shirt out from a metal crate that was at the foot of the bed. She pulled off her coolant-covered work clothes and slipped on the shirt. A loud 'TING!" signaled the creature named Vern's food was done. A mechanical hand placed it on the floor by the wall with the keypad and Vern ran over to eat.

Alias went back across the room and picked up her bag. Opening it, she pulled out a gray box, similar to the ones in the rec-hall, but with a cord attached to it. Setting it on the table, she went over to the keypad, punched in another code and received something that looked like a sandwich. After eating it, she got ready for bed, put the gray console on the stool beside her bed, plugged the cord into her data port and got into bed. As the holo-screen came out of the box and the writing said "You are now logged on to Cytrona" Alias thought; _"And Navryn wanted just to go have drinks tonight. He has no idea what he's missing!"_ She chuckled as she drifted off to sleep and into another world.


	3. Chapter 3

I just realized this probably isn't as cyberpunk as stuff like that normally is, but whatever. I'm enjoying writing it and I've actually got a plot worked out, unlike some of my other attempts at stories ;). Please R&R I'd like to know what you think. Constructive criticism is welcomed!

**Chapter 3**

_Verana is now logged on at 20:57._

_Greetings Verana, Welcome back to Cytrona! You have two new messages from Marthus and Elrin._

A woman stood, surround by dome shaped buildings. Her brown hair was long, she looked slender and fairly strong. A small, teardrop shaped, hovering robot zoomed in front of her.

"Bot, open messages." The woman named Verana said. A holo-screen was projected in front of it. In a hollow voice it said;

"Opening messages, one message from Marthus, one message from Elrin."

"Open message from Marthus first and read." She ordered.

"Reading now. 'V. Have you heard from Elrin yet? I need him for tonight or else Yale is breaking the access codes and with this big of a chance of getting caught, I don't want to risk it! Reply ASAP! Don't forget, meet outside Xerolite's buildings. It should be easy getting in. We're posing as a maintaince crew, come dressed. We're looking in the archives for the doc. titled "Case #7846, Reformed efficiency.

See you there

M.'

End message."

"Read message from Elrin." Verana said as she turned to look for the exit from the small town she was in. She was outside one of the odd, dome shaped buildings that was covered with whirring, flashing, glowing buttons, dials, switches, and displays. It looked as though it was made of assorted metals held together by large bolts. Beside her, a pale purple, slightly dented hover-cycle sat parked.

"Reading now. Veri, Break the code, don't trust Yale, he's a collaborator with the hack investigation squad! They're onto me now, this will probably the last message I get off before they find me. But before I go, remember the Inston guys I told you about? Well, they not only completely disappeared on Cytrona, but the few guys I knew from Omithron are gone also and so are their files. Make sure you get that file from Xerolite, we hackers depend on it!

Be cautious,

Elrin"

Verana was stowing her bag in a compartment under the seat of the hover-cycle. "Shit." Picking up the robot by a handle on its head, she attached it to the cycle with a clamp hanging on the back left. "Start message to Marthus."

The robot emitted a soft whirring as the holo-screen flickered from the text to a blank screen. "Begin when ready."

"Marthus, make sure you're alone when you read this. Get rid of Yale now! He's in with the investigators and they got El thanks to him! They might already be onto us, we need to get that file now, Elrin said it's real important!

I'll be in the city soon,

V.

End message."

She slipped on a helmet that matched the cycle and hopped on as the bot said "message sent." She pressed the ignition button and the bike hummed to life, floating a bit higher than what it was parked at. Turning it, Verana hit the speed pedal with her heel and shot off around to the other side of the strange building. She went past a few more like it, and then aimed her bike slightly upwards. Soon, she was accelerating over the tops of what was left of Cytrona's trees.

Not far from the small patch of trees, smooth, silvery buildings rose skyward. As Verana neared them, she could see they were made of billions, maybe trillions, of small circuit boards under something like glass, but stronger. They were completely silver and gave off light, with balconies sticking out from odd places. She raced past them, zigzagging through the traffic. Mumbling to herself about 'Circuit City rush hour', she pulled up to one of the many featureless buildings and parked her bike on one of the balconies. At the wall of the building, she pressed her hand into the middle area of the wall the balcony was attached to.

As she pushed on it slightly, the wall slid inwards, making it distinguishable from the rest of the building. With a light 'whoosh' it slid open. Verana walked in and it whooshed back to its spot.

Inside was a small room. Everything was a pearlescent white and smooth, except the floor, which was silver, like the outside of the building, but appeared to be moving liquid, almost like mercury. Like the circuits on the building, it too was under a glass-like material, but it had a slightly bumpy texture, making it grippier than the other glass-like stuff.

Verana crossed the room and opened a wardrobe. In it, an odd assortment of clothes was hung up. She shuffled through them, picking a washed out green set of coveralls and a black tank. She changed quick, tying the upper part of the coveralls around her waist. She went back to the wardrobe and grabbed a set of gloves, which she shoved in her pocket.

She then went to a table by one of the many windows. The odd thing about these buildings was you never saw the circuits when you were inside. Opening a drawer in the table, she grabbed a small, black disk along with a black tube and put them in the other pocket. She turned and headed back to the door, opening it the same way. She started her bike and continued heading to her destination.

She arrived at one of the few buildings that looked different from the others. The only differences were that the circuits had small traces of gold and pale blue in them and the only balcony entrance was at the very top. A few doors on the ground were marked by some of the circuit material protruding out from the building in the shape of arched doorways.

"_Convenient for security, fewer ways for hackers to get in…and out."_

She parked her bike just outside one of the ground level doors and leaned against it, looking at her watch. On it was the time, date and her location. It was 21:08. She looked around.

"_Where is everyone? They can't have already gone in…"_

Just as she thought this, an electric blue bike came zooming towards her. The driver parked it not far from hers, pulled off the black helmet and revealed a handsomely rugged-looking man underneath.

"Good to see you again V, just had to take care of some riff-raff trying to crash our party, if you get my meaning." He said as he came towards her. He was dressed in coveralls like her.

"Marthus, I thought you had started without me!" She hugged him and he returned it.

"Well, you're our code breaker now and we can't start without one!" His deep voice was pleasant, almost musical.

"Where is everyone?" She asked, starting to look worried as she remembered Elrin's message.

"At their posts, we're in teams of two and each team is going through a different door."

"Oh, sounds good. When are we heading in?"

"21:25, we'll be outside archives just as security scans go down. Only you, me and Zandy's group are actually going in. Everybody else is keeping watch."

They lapsed into silence for a bit, but Verana had a feeling Marthus was getting ready to try something on her again. He'd been trying to get her back to his place for a couple weeks, ever since his last girl left, saying she couldn't handle his 'lifestyle'.

Finally, he broke the silence; "So…I was thinking maybe if all goes well, we could all head down to my place to celebrate? Maybe after, I could show you this new bar that just opened up not far from me?"

"_Why's it always just before a mission?"_ She thought. "Well, I might be able to come hang out with everyone and I'd love to see the new bar, but I've got to be back in Omithron for work."

"You work too much." He took her rejections quite well, probably because they were such good friends. He checked his watch. "21:24, let's go."

They got into position in front of the door. Marthus checked his watch once more, "you ready?" he asked. When she nodded, he led them inside.


End file.
